At dinner, one evening, browsing through television channels, I stopped at a ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Little Champs 2009’ episode. I heard this little child sing the song from Race – ‘Zara Zara, Kiss Me, Touch Me’.
I was gripped by a strange feeling as I heard the little girl trying to emulate the original singer with sensual modulations. In the film the song is meant for seduction with direct lyrics. She was trying to modulate like the original without knowing the true application of the song. Is this true singing? Are we not supposed to sing from heart and relate to the lyrics of the song? How can this young girl relate to a song like this?
Don’t we have songs for children? Songs that celebrate friendship, love, peace and on the fun side – songs about parties, pets, fairy tales, family bonding, folk tales. There can be a long list.
Songs like – Tare Zameen par; Sa Re Ke Sa Re Ga Ma Ko lekar gaate chale, by Gulzar-R.D. Burman Saab; Phoolon ka taron ka sabka kehna hai; Hai na bolo bolo; Ichak Dana Bichak Dana; Maine kaha pholon se; nani teri morni ko; and we have a list already.
Dear musician friends we need to create more songs like this for our children.
I also request parents to find good children’s music for your kids. I promise, very soon, I will compose some good songs for children. I already have the lyrics on my desk.
I was to return from Gorakhpur after a press conference along with two colleagues. Winters are chilly in North India so that particular Monday was extremely cold and foggy. Trains were getting cancelled and we knew ours could be in the list. We reached the railway station praying, because on Tuesday, we had to take up an important assignment with a fixed deadline. But our Gods had already decided to test us in their most skillful ways. Yes! ‘The train’s cancelled’ was the announcement. We had to take a quick decision and we took this one pretty fast. In next few minutes we were on board Vaishali Express in the general compartment. We had struggled to get in, we were struggling to stand and to some extent struggling to breathe as all of us, 100 odd people were just a breath’s distance away. We knew the next six hours to Lucknow could be hell if we didn’t do something quickly. Fortunately my travel companions were lively and carefree people like all media professionals.
We decided to play Antakshari. Antakshri is a game played with more than two players where one sings a phrase of a song and the other player sings another song starting with the last letter of the last song. Thus a chain of songs is formed.
I started with the song ‘gaddi jandi hai chhalanga mardi’ by Rafi Saab and Shailendra Singh, a song that was most appropriate for the situation we were in. There was a song, and the next song and then another. We were having fun in an overcrowded unreserved compartment of an Indian train. Suddenly we noticed there were two persons standing close to us smiling and humming along with us. I gestured an invitation and they were thrilled as if they were waiting to join in. From three, we were now five singing a bigger chain of songs. Encouraged, we extended invitations to a few more people around and they all got accepted. From five to seven our antakshri group grew to twenty one. Rafi Saab to Asha ji, K.L. Saigal to Kumar Shanu we were just singing and drumming the panels and the berths, clapping and challenging each other with difficult letters. You may think it would have created a lot of rumpus, but believe me, all those who were not participating were enjoying too, as they were simply smiling or suggesting songs if not clapping. An old gentleman suggested a song from Anmol Ghadi – ‘Awaaz de kahan Hai’. It was music, I am sure, music of a common Indian; music that we have grown with; music that relieves our daily stress; music that is our emotional partner. That is Bollywood music, music that connects the whole of India.